Orange is my Color

You got to have a gimmick. 

When I started I didn’t have a gimmick and I was not going to carry a flag, a light saber, or an umbrella. Yes, I have an umbrella in case it rains and yes, it is orange. 

Before I began touring, I worked for a wholesales apparel company and one season, orange was a color projection so we received a number of apparel samples in orange. 

It has made for some very interesting comments over the years. 

A couple of years ago, this 14 year old boy asked, “Mr. Sean, how many orange polos do you have?” First I said to the young man, “how do you know I changed my shirt?” Then followed, “I have enough so that I don’t have to do laundry while you’re in town.” 

My neighbors have followed my career since the beginning. At the mailbox those first years, a neighbor would see me in orange and say, “you worked today.” Now, over fifteen years later they say, “gosh, you work all the time.” 

It is funny how my coworkers perceive my obsession. I showed up for a non-work function as a civilian, a coworker asked, “where is your orange?” 

Every time on tour I would wear orange in that first season, someone in my group would come up to me and say, “I thought I lost you and then I saw your orange jacket.” After the third time, orange became my thing. 

Welcome to One Token Tours... 

40 Wall Street for the Win

40 Wall Street

40 Wall Street was the first building to surpass the Eiffel Tower, becoming the tallest building in the world.  

I don’t think that 40 Wall Street nor the Chrysler Building started out to be the tallest buildings. If you can find drawing of the original designs they do not look like they do today. I don’t think the foundation was expected to hold more than 60 floors. Ego became the drive and The demand, higher, higher!

There is a reason why few know this because it was the tallest building for a very short amount of time as Chrysler Building had a secret weapon. 

When you meet me in New York City, I will share the entire story. 

For that extra height on 40 Wall Street a flagpole was added to the top. It was decided that the flagpole was added after the fact and can be removed therefore, does not count as part of the height.

Join me, One Token Tours.

This is not Gossip Girl nor Sex and the City

The Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building is one of my favorites and I have many favorite building in New York City, an icon that appears in the opening credits of TV shows and movies. 

I studied architecture, interiors at the College of Architecture at Auburn University and I am fascinated by the vocabulary of architecture.

Classical architecture is about proportion to the human. Contemporary architecture during the Art Deco period is about motion, it is about energy. 

The concept of architecture we understand is more than just shelter. 

Within different cultures architecture tells the story of the place it exists. 

Cars, cars, cars, drive the skyline of this great city in 1930.

The featured ornamentation, they are not gargoyles lIke one might find in history, they are not warding off evil.. They are hood ornaments, and design features of the Chrysler automobiles. 

Imagine yourself owning a Chrysler car.. That hood ornament defines status. The striving to become..  The American dream. 

The Chrysler Building erected during the Great Depression is the difference between the haves and have nots during a very difficult period of American history.  

What it, The Chrysler Building represents within the record of architecture, it holds a prestigious right as the ‘Tallest building in the world because of that spire.” This is a story for another time. 

Join me at One Token Tours and I will share with you which building surpassed the Eiffel Tower first.